


Nostalgia

by LadyofShalott



Series: Tarot [1]
Category: Professional Wrestling, WWE, 新日本プロレス | New Japan Pro-Wrestling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-19
Updated: 2017-07-19
Packaged: 2018-12-04 06:12:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11549154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyofShalott/pseuds/LadyofShalott
Summary: Roman finds an old match that brings back a flood of memories for Seth.





	Nostalgia

**Author's Note:**

> Obviously, this is fiction and no implications about the actual lives or characters of these men are made. I have had severe writer's block, so I pulled out my old faithful Rider-Waite deck, and I'm using the cards as prompts.

**Six of Cups: Nostalgia, innocence**

Roman had been screwing around backstage on his tablet and somehow managed to find that crazy triple threat match from Ring of Honor. Daniel Bryan vs. Tyler Black vs. Kenny Omega. Fuck, that was ages ago. 

“Man, I love Bryan, but that double Cattle Mutilation was really bad,” Roman had observed, and Seth remembered lying face down beside Kenny on the mat, the two of them trying not to crack up at the utter ridiculousness of the move.

 

Back at the hotel, Seth boots up his laptop and finds that match again. Watching it with Roman had set off a near-overwhelming wave of nostalgia. There they are again, a little larger on his laptop screen, and damn, they look so young. Seth never once thought he’d miss working the indies, or his days in Ring of Honor, but this… this makes him remember why he loved it to begin with.

_He thought he was safe. He’d been working Ring of Honor shows for three months, and he spent every moment that he wasn’t in the ring hanging out in the corner of the locker room, headphones on, book in hand. Occasionally either the Young Bucks or Adam Cole would look at him like they wanted to come talk, but thankfully, they didn’t act on the urge._

_The next thing he knew, there was a damn lunatic with curly blond hair wilder than his own standing in front of him holding his headphones._

_“Hi. I’m Kenny… well, Tyson, but if you call me that I may have to kill you.”_

_Seth introduced himself as well, and was told in no uncertain terms that he was going to dinner with Kenny, Cole, and the Bucks after the show._

_“You looked like you needed a friend,” Kenny told him later on, after they’d known each other long enough to be the sort of comfortable that made being in each other’s presence feel like pulling on a favorite pair of jeans. “So I decided we were going to be friends, whether you liked it or not.”_

 

Kenny had decided they were going to be a lot of things whether Seth liked it or not. Friends, traveling companions… lovers. That last had come as a bit of a surprise, but it seemed a natural progression.

_  
“Seth, what the hell?” Kenny pulled Seth down onto a bench in the locker room and pressed an ice pack against Seth’s right hand, which was already starting to bruise._

_It was starting to bruise because he’d just broken a guy’s nose for giving Kenny crap about being bi. It wasn’t like Kenny broadcasted it, but some people knew. Seth was thankful that the fight, such as it was, had happened after he’d showered, because he was pretty sure hot water would’ve made the pain in his hand ten times worse._

_“He had it coming,” Seth growled._

_“Seth,” Kenny began, almost sadly. “It’s not the first time it’s happened. It won’t be the last.” Kenny smiled and squeezed Seth’s unharmed left hand. “It makes me happy that it doesn’t bother you. The bi thing, I mean.”_

_“Why would it bother me?” Seth eyed him. “I am, too, dumbass. I figured it was obvious.” Seth managed a smile despite the throbbing in his hand._

_“This never has to happen again if you don’t want it to,” Kenny began, tangling his fingers in Seth’s hair and pulling him into a kiss._

 

Seth remembers that kiss more vividly than any other in his life. It was the beginning of so many things, Seth recalls, although for the sake of both their careers at the time, as far as anyone else knew, they were just friends who traveled together. 

Several months later, Kenny had signed with WWE developmental and went to Florida. They had tried to make it work, and had thought they were going to succeed until Kenny became too frustrated to deal with WWE anymore, said fuck it, and quit. 

Seth remembers that it all blew up in their faces when Kenny decided he was going to Japan because of goddamn Kota Ibushi. Kota was Kenny’s white whale. Kenny had become obsessed after seeing videos online and decided that he had to wrestle Ibushi to prove himself. 

Sometimes, Seth recalls, it was a little scary. He also remembers knowing that the relationship was never going to survive Japan. They argued about it for two months before Kenny left, things between them growing increasingly tense, before finally breaking it off in a blaze of glory the day before Kenny’s move to Tokyo. 

Since then, Seth’s been with women exclusively, relationships always ending badly – more recently ending spectacularly badly. He figures a shrink would have a field day with him. 

He hasn’t once heard from Kenny in the ensuing years, but he’s kept up with him online. He thinks he should be able to take some consolation in the fact that it looks like Kota broke Kenny the same way Kenny broke Seth… but that’s not the kind of guy Seth is. Mainly, he just feels bad for Kenny. The poor man looks lost. 

Seth debates reaching out to Kenny, but decides his heart can’t handle it. He shuts down the computer and goes to bed, and for a moment he feels strong arms around him; can smell the faint trace of Kenny’s cologne, can almost hear that voice whispering in his ear. Then, like fog in sunlight, it’s gone and he’s alone.


End file.
